You Docs: For a good energy boost, take ribose

Tuesday

Nov 29, 2011 at 12:26 AM

The Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays are a big deal in my family. There are many get-togethers, decorating, church activities, food and kids. It’s fun, but by New Year’s Day, I’m whipped.

This year, my daughter is having a Christmas wedding, too. I’m already flat out of energy, but I want to enjoy every moment. Will energy drinks help?

— Marcia, Amherst, Mass.

Some college students think the most important discovery of the past decade was Red Bull. Most of the boost in energy drinks comes from two things — sugar and caffeine — and the effect is short-term. Then it lets you down. That’s why people get addicted to them.

Overloading on caffeine also could backfire big-time for you by throwing your nightly sleep to the wind.

We’d suggest something entirely different: Ribose.

It’s actually a sugar, but a completely different kind. Ribose is made in your body, where it’s used to build key energy molecules, but you also can get it as a supplement.

The most convincing evidence for ribose’s ability to infuse energy is that taking a daily dose gives a real boost to people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome — diseases characterized by exhaustion. The only side effect is that some people feel too much energy.

To give it a try, start with 500 mg three times a day for a week, mixed into a smoothie or tea; it has a somewhat sweet taste. Then go to 5 grams three times a day for three weeks, which should get you to the far side of New Year’s Day. If you still need a short-term lift while you get things back to normal, scale back to 5 grams twice a day. After that, get some rest.

There’s no breast cancer in my family, but I’m petrified of getting it. And during the past year, two friends my age (56) have been diagnosed with it.

I’m not a big drinker, but I enjoy a glass of wine with dinner three or four times a week. Does that make me more likely to get breast cancer?

— Allison, Sanibel, Fla.

Asking us how to solve the European debt crisis might be a simpler question.

For women, the question is increasingly: To drink, or not to drink? The answer depends on whether you have any family history of (A) breast cancer or (B) heart disease/stroke. You see, alcohol protects your vascular system but inhibits your immune system.

You don’t mention heart attacks or stroke, but if there’s any history of either in your family, we would lean toward continuing to enjoy your glass of wine.

There’s clear evidence that for women (men, too), having no more than one drink a day (no more than two for men) is heart- and brain-protective. Since there’s no breast cancer in your family, those benefits outweigh your breast cancer risks, because cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women.

But if there aren’t any heart attacks or strokes in your family history, things shift. Some impressive new research has just linked even light drinking, like yours — three to six drinks a week — to a modest increase in breast cancer risk compared with women who don’t drink at all. Heavier drinking — two drinks a day — sharply increases the risk.

Assuming there’s no vascular disease in your family and weighing the “peace of mind” factor, we’d suggest half a glass on most nights. That takes you out of the modest-risk group, gives you heart and stroke protection and lets you enjoy some vino.

One note: Next time you pour a glass of wine, get out your kitchen measuring cup. A “glass” equals 5 ounces. You may be surprised by what that looks like.

• • •

HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS

There recently has been a brouhaha about a new Cornell University survey, which found that your number of close friends has dropped from three to two during the past two decades.

That makes it sound like you’ve somehow lost a third of your best pals. But hold on. We’re betting that you, like us, have a biggish circle of friends you happily hang with over coffee, during group walks or volunteering at the library. Terrific.

An active social life helps protect you, and them, from high blood pressure, stress and inflammation. There’s some evidence that it may even raise your odds of surviving breast cancer and bypassing a heart attack.

But of that group, there probably are only a couple with whom you share everything from, a bad joke to bad news.

Besides being total confidantes, you do even more for each other’s health than regular friends: You slash each other’s odds of memory loss and disabilities, and increase the chances you’ll be able to manage everything from meals to meds later in life by a whopping 150 percent.

Researchers can’t pinpoint exactly what makes these connections so powerful, but they know it happens.

As long as you have one or two of ‘em, count yourself lucky. It’s more about quality than quantity.

• • •

CHEWING OFF POUNDS

It sounds so promising: If you chew sugar-free gum for 20 minutes three times during the morning, you’ll naturally eat almost 70 fewer calories at lunch and won’t compensate for it later in the day.

Plus, you’ll burn a few extra calories doing all that chewing. Keep it up for a year, and you could lose eight pounds without even trying.

It was one of those small, quirky studies (35 people) that got all kinds of media attention two years ago, and led to a larger follow-up study that included 201 people, all overweight.

The just-in upshot? If only. After eight weeks, there was no significant weight-loss difference between the gum chewers and the gum-free group, even though the chewers kept at it for at least 90 minutes a day. That’s a lot of chewing.

Still, it wasn’t a total wash. Everyone in both groups was trying to lose weight and got minimal help doing it — basically, just some printed nutritional information and, for half of them, a ton of gum.

Yet both groups emerged with somewhat smaller waists and healthier blood pressure. And the gum group said, mildly, that chewing curbed snack cravings, helped them stay on their diets and trimmed nighttime eating. So — you guessed it — there’ll likely be another study.

Interesting disclaimer: Both studies got funding from the Wrigley Science Institute, which presumably was thrilled by the first results. The second? Probably not so much.

• • •

AVOID WINTER PAINS

Ask anyone with achy, arthritic joints what they do on cold, short days, and the answer is, “Stay inside and stay warm.” We YOU Docs get that, having shivered through last winter’s record-breaking freeze-outs ourselves.

But please add a third “stay” to that list: Stay inside, stay warm and stay active.

Turns out that as soon as the days turn shorter, people with arthritis spend three additional hours indoors. Doing what? Sitting around. It’s rarely about the weather; it’s about running out of daylight.

First, when you don’t move, your joints get stiffer, even if you don’t have arthritis. Activity keeps them flexible and strengthens muscles, which act as support systems for joints. Second, sitting is as risky as trans fats, icy sidewalks and cruise-ship buffets.

Hours of sitting messes up your blood sugar and blood pressure, and ups your odds of breast and colon cancer.

What to do?

• Spring for an exercise bike. Put it smack in front of the TV.

• Buy a pedometer, then use your home as a walking path. Go ahead, aim to do 10,000 steps a day indoors by New Year’s.

• Pace while you listen to a book on tape or make mental gift lists.

• Have a summer walking buddy? Call each other, then talk and walk indoors.

• Borrow or buy a Wii Fit set and bowl, play golf, tennis or baseball in your den.

Even we YOU Docs are aware that women’s heels have gotten taller than Heidi Klum. Upshot: It’s not just bankers who are getting rich in this economy.

Foot physicians are doing fabulously, too — much to their dismay. As the average height of fashion heels has gone from 3 inches to 5 or 6 inches, women’s visits to docs for foot and toe woes have soared an estimated 75 percent during the past few years. Eight out of 10 women say their shoes are painful.

You’re not surprised? Neither are we. For Carrie Bradshaw and other fans of Manolos et. al, walking has become an extreme fashion sport — what one foot surgeon calls “shoe-icide.” Peek under the chairs in Dr. Oz’s TV audiences, and kicked-off shoes are the rule.

So, is there any good news in here? Yep. There’s now evidence, from global business analysts at IBM, of all places, that as the economy tiptoes up, heel heights inch down. While it used to be hemlines that tied fashion to finance, stilettos appear to be the new economic indicators.

You may already have spotted your neighborhood fashionista skipping around in ballet flats. What’s next? The return of kitten heels, which top out at 2 inches, the height most foot docs agree is the maximum for happy feet. We can hear women cheering now.

Hey, we never expected to be writing about kitten heels or fashionistas in this column. But we have wives and daughters. We gotta keep up.

• • •

BEANS BEAT BELLY FAT

We are the champions of things: Whole grains? Check. DHA omega-3s? Check. Vitamin D3? Check. Beans? Still working on those.

As the season of humongous turkeys, rib roasts and country hams peaks, we’re cheering on our favorite protein — the one that’s loaded with phytonutrients, lowers your lousy cholesterol instead of raising it and even fights belly fat.

Yep, beans do all that and more. Here’s why we’re gonna beat this drum until we’ve got a parade going:

• Blood pressure. Beans are rich in artery-friendly minerals and healthy plant protein, and people who get their protein from plants tend to have better blood pressure than those who get it from four- or two-legged animals.